Becoming Favorite, Typical Culinary Of The Archipelago Targeted By Indonesian Gastro-Tourists

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Indonesia is a country rich in culture. From art, natural beauty to culinary which are diverse. Indonesian culinary has its own characteristics.

In addition, the culinary archipelago can also be a tourist attraction because of its global goal. Innovation in the culinary industry has the potential to strengthen the creative economy and can boost the growth of national tourism activities.

Former Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sapta Nirwandar, revealed that Indonesia itself is famous for its cultural diversity and culinary paradise. This is because various processed Indonesian food menus are processed with selected spices, resulting in extraordinary flavors. No doubt, this typical Indonesian culinary can be anchored in various parts of the world.

One of Indonesia's typical foods that is quite popular in foreign countries includes Padang cuisine, with its characteristics, namely cassava leaves and rendang. But there are many other special culinary delights such as fried rice, satay, soto, fried noodles, and many others," he said, Monday, July 22.

Sapta continued, the number of Indonesian culinary delights also gave rise to many presences of various festivals, events, or meetings. With this presence, it is hoped that it can encourage market penetration, especially boosting public interest and tastes.

In addition to campaigning for culinary delights as icons, festivals, events, and meetings are other main buffers for culinary tourism growth. From an event, culinary players can connect with a larger market through digitalization, gain a place for market penetration, and maintain public interest and tastes," he explained.

Sapta also explained, although during the pandemic the culinary sector had the most impact, this sector was also a sub-sector that quickly recovered from the shock of the pandemic. There has been a surge in the number of large medium-scale businesses from the culinary sub-sector since the end of the pandemic, because the people's consumption market has increased again.

This is evidenced from BPS data, in the first quarter of 2024, the food and beverage industry grew 5.87 percent. This was supported by an increase in the number of large medium-scale food and drink providers reaching 20.76 percent in 2022, with a total business of around 10,900. Last year, culinary contributed 6.5 percent to the national GDP, almost close to Rp1000 trillion, with job creation of around 43 percent.

Meanwhile, from the culinary distribution of the archipelago version of the MusteAtlas Awards, there are eight cities in Indonesia that are included in the ranks of 100 cities out of 16,601 cities that have the best regional and national food in the world. The eight cities include Bandung, Jakarta, Surabaya, Padang, Malang, Yogyakarta, Seminyak, and Ubud. Not surprisingly, because Indonesia itself has more than 600 traditional recipes.

Understanding the high public interest in food tourism and the public's longing for regional food, Danamon presents the Nusantara Culinary Festival at DXPO by Danamon on July 18-21, 2024 at Central Park Mall, which presents culinary delights from various parts of Indonesia that cannot be found in Jakarta.

This festival will present 18 regional food entrepreneurs, ranging from Seblak Mamang Rapael from Garut to Bakso Ati Raja Gunung Merapi from Makassar. The event was held in order to provide a place for regional culinary players to market their flagship culinary products, connect culinary players with a number of financial solutions, and provide opportunities for Jakarta residents to taste well-known culinary delights from the regions without having to leave the city.

DXPO by Danamon is designed to feature Danamon's broad network with its corporate group, which offers a comprehensive financial solution, which is tailored to customer needs.

"Our goal is to become a trusted financial partner who is always customer-oriented and innovative, in order to meet the needs of stakeholders, by providing comprehensive financial solutions and we grow together," said Daisuke Ejima, President Director, PT Bank Danamon Indonesia Tbk.